Incredibly his new songs were the best songs: Lindsey Buckingham, at the London Palladium, reviewed

Lindsey Buckingham, at 72, still has cheekbones that cast shadows. He has the upright shock of hair, too, though now it makes him look less like the kohl-eyed pop god of 1980 and more like Malcolm Gladwell’s cooler, angrier brother. He still has fire, too. A couple of solo renditions of Fleetwood Mac songs won the crowd over, but it was the following run of three numbers from his newest album, played with his three-piece band, that put the spark to the show. It proved he’s not yet a heritage act.

He had no choice, really, but to forge ahead. In 2018, he was booted out of Fleetwood Mac, for various reasons, chief among them appearing to be that Stevie Nicks couldn’t stand the sight of him any longer, and it was her or him. There were also books documenting him being controlling and abusive to two former partners, Nicks and Carol Ann Harris. One American musician I interviewed idly wondered what it must be like inside Buckingham’s head. Probably, he concluded, a bit like that horror movie Event Horizon, where the malevolent spaceship drives everyone mad. All of which is to say that while he may be an elder statesman who has given pleasure to millions, Buckingham is very much not the music industry’s answer to Tom Hanks.

But popular culture will persist in throwing up problematic people who happen to be geniuses, and Buckingham is one of pop music’s geniuses, worthy of comparison with Paul McCartney and Brian Wilson. His run of records with Fleetwood Mac from 1975 to 1987 is a glory (well, OK, Mirage is patchy), and though Nicks and Christine McVie were also major songwriters, Buckingham was the one with the vision. He was an astounding, adventurous songwriter, a brilliant guitarist, and an extraordinary producer and arranger – the studio was his instrument.